To provide adequate support to current or prospective customers, many businesses offer telephone numbers that individuals can call for such support. For example, these customer service numbers can be utilized to pay bills, receive technical support, purchase products or services, cancel or change services, update user information such as an address, and various other tasks. In the past, these numbers routed to a plurality of lines, wherein human beings were employed to personally answer telephones, answer questions, and route phone calls. Access to these telephone lines, however, was typically limited to business hours, as it is extremely expensive to employ individuals to monitor phones for twenty hours a day, seven days a week. This is problematic for customers or prospective customers who have a small time window within which they can make telephone calls. For instance, if an individual has a technical question regarding a television, yet must be at a place of employment at a subtantially similar time that the customer service line is available, it may be difficult at best to ask appropriate questions or take action while not proximate to such television.
As technology with respect to the telecommunications industry has advanced, automated telephone attendants have become a well-known tool for use in connection with customer service telephone lines. These automated attendants enable businesses to offer twenty-four hour support on several topics that are deemed most important by the businesses. For example, customer support telephone lines associated with large banks typically allow a user, through use of an automated attendant, to check account balances, transfer monies between accounts, make payments on loans with a bank, and other common tasks. Generally, users can provide feedback to the automated attendant and/or make selections by generating voice commands or depressing particular buttons on a touch-tone telephone. In other words, callers can traverse through a menu by providing feedback to questions or listed options provided by the automated attendant. If the automated attendant is not able to provide the particular support desired by the user, such user can then be transferred to a human being for further assistance.
While automated telephone attendants have enabled businesses to reduce overhead cost and, in some instances, provide efficient customer support, there are many instances where callers to the customer support line can become frustrated. For instance, a caller may have to listen to several options that are not germane to the caller's desires with respect to customer support. Thus, callers to customer support lines can find themselves provided with a seemingly endless parade of options, and the caller can spend a significant amount of valuable time on the telephone traversing through these options. Such “wasted” time can leave the caller with feelings of angst towards the company utilizing the automated attendant. Additionally, company costs can be increased, as companies typically offer toll free numbers for users to contact for customer support, wherein charges for time callers spend with the automated attendant are bore by the companies.